RE: Shot Show Thread

[Eric-WD]

In the USA, they came first for the Assault Weapons, And I didn

[BlauBear]

Agreed. Many folks think my affection for rimfires is silly - fine - makes me happy. I return the favor by thinking some of their fun is silly - so what?

[nomad]

There's an Irish saying: "Don't keep such an open mind that your brains fall out!"

The reality is that the wannabes ARE creating for the rest of us an image problem that the antis can -- and DO -- exploit...and all to feed some Rambo fantasy that they'd never live up to.

I support any shooting game that is populated by people who are responsible enough to avoid putting the rest of us in a bad light and hurting our cause.

As for those who want to dress up in cammies, wear a big knife and play-act with their black rifles:
Sorry, but I don't socialize with people who look for a fight while expecting that I'll jump in and pull them out of it and I have no interest in wasting the limited resources of the shooting community defending the wannabes. If you allow yourself to be drawn into battles that you can't win -- especially if the people 'drawing you in' are doing that through childish irresponsibility -- you stand a very good chance of losing the war!

Now I think I'll honor that promise I've made myself and just go back to MY fantasies -- about ever shooting a decent score in silhouette...lol

[BlauBear]

Not much we can do about either group, Nomad. The anti-gun crowd really doesn't need an excuse, and when a wannabe shows up at the range we watch them closely because they are so dangerous. We've learned to yell early and often about range safety, but some of these folks are scary stupid.

[Jim Beckley]

John Orn and I were talking about those clowns about a month ago, if you ask anyone of them about their military service it equals to not a day. Years ago I was at the range and this guy, he was probably late 50's had some kind of rifle that Rambo would be proud to own, I ask him well what do you do with it? His reply was that he had it incase he had to go somewhere!

[BlauBear]

You just never know when those dang zombies will attack...

[Eric-WD]

Its not about black guns or green guns or purple guns, its not about camo or big knives. None of those things are illegal, unlawful or fattening.

Its about us its about divide and conquer and us accepting it. They aren't going to stop until every firearm is out of the hands of anyone but the police.

We need to gather together and look past the differences what difference does it make how much Military time these people have? When did a color of anything make it bad or evil. If these people weren't evilizing the camo wearers as Rambos it would be the Cowboy action crowd as Wyat Erp, Doc Holiday group. Or perhaps it would be silhouette shooting as being evil for teaching killing skills and violence using "Sniper Rifles.

We can not allow the Media and anti gun idiots divide us. We can not allow them to define what evil is. We need to organize now and I don't mean just sending $20 to the NRA.

About 20 years ago the Portland Trail Blazers were in the play offs against Da Lakers. Portland received some very bad calls. The fans and Players were ticked and were verbal about it. Bryant Gumball (sic) the next morning referred to them in a nation wide newsbroadcast as the "cryblazers". The local #1 morning radio show in Portland played the clip over and over, and gave out the phone numbers to CBS (i think) News over the air. They received so many calls that it shut down the news service switchboard, I can remember listening to a call from CBS to the local station asking that they stop giving out the number. Which then gave it out more often.

The result was that afternoon Bryant Gumball (sic) went on "Vacation" until after the playoffs. and things quieted down.

If everytime CBS NBC etc showed a clip of a machine gun while talking about the assault weapons ban we called them on it. Flooded the switchboards and emails of the local and national TV stations with calls re there mistake, If every time they referred to a 9mm as powerful because it holds a lot of ammo we called them on it, In short if every time there bias showed we called them on it and not only them but the companies who advertise on the news, soon they would have to stop showing bias or not have a news program. If the fans of a small NBA franchise can pull CBS News to there knees we can.

Get Mad, Organize, Make Noise.

Now it the time

as Benjamin Franklin said while signing the declaration of independence

"We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately"

[Jim Beckley]

This is my feelings and I'm sure that a few others out there feel the same way, here goes! My family has served this country since at least before the Revolutionary War. When we came from England we landed in Maryland and stayed there. One of my Grandfathers served with George and was given 2 tracks of land in Ohio, where the rest of us came from. My Great Grandfather served in the Civil War. My Grandfather was in WW1, My Dad and his four brothers served from WW2 to Korea. I did 3 years in the Army and then 8 years in the Guard, so when someone throws on some kind of a uniform just to play, I find it a bit offensive. I'll get off my soap box now!

[BlauBear]

Jim, once again, I agree but that isn't the issue.

On one hand, I support reasonable gun legislation as in the best interest of society, but it is difficult to compromise with an anti-gun crowd intent on outright ban.

[1armoured]

Eric,

The whole World has faced a steady erosion of personal 'rights' regarding firearms ownership over a very long time.
And we face further threat from the UN, and the anti-gun brigade.

The USA is fairly unique in it's gun ownership laws (or lack of them),
as most Western countries limit the ownership of military type weapons in civilian hands.

I don't think that your 'redneck' shoot-em-up brigade have helped shooters image, or the more recent 'tactical' solutions brotherhood, either.

In Australia, semi-automatic rifles are banned from general public ownership.
Here in New Zealand, the law is a little more relaxed, in that you have to have a special licence to own and fire a military semi.
Both countries have experienced mass killings by deranged shooters.

I doubt whether any European or South American democracies allow their citizens the 'privilege', and Canada has it's own issues.

It is all very well to advocate working together, but at the end of the day we all have to individually argue our cases, and justify our sport.
We have our Sporting Shooters Associations, and you have your NRA.
They all put forward our views on our behalf.

I used an FN FAL 7.62 for my 10 years of military service, in Africa,
but I have no desire to shoot one in a sporting capacity.
My son uses the Steyr AUG in his daily job, but hunts with a 5 shot mag bolt action.
Our choice.

In this day and age, public opinion has shifted against private gun ownership, as society becomes more urbanised, and the ability to shoot and hunt is seen as being less of an attribute, and the ownership of guns as being more of a threat, as the media portrays gun owners and shooters generally in a bad light.

I guess this subject has been debated emotively at length on many forums.

cheers,
Sean in 'Godzone'

[BlauBear]

I would not personally miss semi-automatics, but I don't trust government and believe it's healthy that it should have a certain amount of respect for the governed. Enforcing existing guns and I expect the real problems will improve.

[Innocent]

Recently when mailing a package of 10 Tshirts to someone I received the usual speech from the clerk at the PO..."does this package contain anything fragile, liquid, perishable or potentially hazardous?"
My response was "To a dedicated individual they could commit suicide with these Tshirts, so yes there is something potentially hazardous."

We need to realize that we cannot protect everyone from everything...nor are the police/sheriff able to protect us, they cannot act until a crime has been committed. Therefore we should be allowed to protect ourselves to best of our ability. Changing the image of the law enforcement 'protect and serve' will be at least as difficult to do as getting Oprah off the air.

Innocent

[Bob259]

Recently when mailing a package of 10 Tshirts to someone I received the usual speech from the clerk at the PO..."does this package contain anything fragile, liquid, perishable or potentially hazardous?"
My response was "To a dedicated individual they could commit suicide with these Tshirts, so yes there is something potentially hazardous."

We need to realize that we cannot protect everyone from everything...nor are the police/sheriff able to protect us, they cannot act until a crime has been committed. Therefore we should be allowed to protect ourselves to best of our ability. Changing the image of the law enforcement 'protect and serve' will be at least as difficult to do as getting Oprah off the air.

Innocent

Oh no there's that Oprah thing again... you are on a roll this morning Mary

[pistolero45]

I was stationed in Spain shortly after the dictator, General Franco, passed away. The gun laws in that country were extremely strict, and it was difficult for an average citizen to even own a shotgun. Handgun and rifle ownership was even more restricted.

As an military non-commissioned officer, I was allowed to own one handgun and six long guns, of which only one could be of a military caliber.

To buy a firearm you had to pay in full, submit the paperwork, and wait at least six months for your permit. Once you had the permit you could pick up your gun. All ammunition had to be purchased with ID and presenting your permit. In the case of handgun ammunition, you were resticted to one box (50 rounds) per year. Ammunition purchases were recorded on your license.

Franco did not trust his police anymore than he trusted his subjects. Even police officers were limited to 50 rounds of handgun ammo per year. It was common to see Spanish police officers carrying 9mm Astra sub-machine guns in addition to their service pistols. I always found it amusing that one could glance at the witness holes in the Astra magazines and see that there were no more than a dozen rounds loaded.

As for freedom and Democracy in Spain, when King Juan Carlos and his interem Socialist goverment held the first national election, the Spainish Air Force loaded their F-4 Phantoms with 500 pound bombs and stood by. It appeared to me the Socialists were going to win that election no matter how the voting went.

[dwl]

I am reminded of the Jews who argued that "Something like that could not happen here!" even as the government shipped their people to the death camps.

It is the ugly truth that too little power on the part of the populous will sooner or later result in oppresion by the government. Just recall what happened in this country to the Blacks, the Indians an even to the Japanese Americans in the 1940s in this country.

History has shown that any culture in any age is capable of perpetrating outrageous oppresion of it's people. Therefore it is necessary for the people to posess arms to protect their freedom.

As a range officer, I often keep a close eye on the potbellied Rambos but I don't try to stop them from shooting, I try to keep them shooting safely.